Orphan Sunday

When I first introduced Ben to the "blog world" last November, I didn't know that we would be married exactly one year later! This past year has been one of the best years of my life. I have gone through a lot, but learned a lot along the way. I made the decision to move back to Snyder last April/May, and it has ended up being one of the best decisions ever. I had prayed and prayed about it, and I know this is where God wants me to be. I have really enjoyed being around my family more, and I have especially cherished the moments with my sweet Nana who has Alzheimer's. We have made new friends and rekindled relationships with old friends, and it has been great.

One of the big bonuses about moving back was meeting Ben. I never in my life dreamed that I would meet my perfect man in Snyder, but God had great plans. I never dreamed that I would gain a super great "bonus child" out of a relationship, but God had great plans.

I mentioned his son in my introduction post, but I didn't talk a whole lot about him...mainly because I hadn't had the chance of meeting him yet. Joseph, Ben's sweet son, is 21 months old and he is absolutely precious! I got the chance to meet him this summer, and I instantly fell in love. I loved not only meeting him, but I loved getting to see Ben be his dad. I know that Ben is a great man, but my love and respect grew deeper for him as I watched him play with Joseph out in the middle of the mall courtyard area. A few weeks ago, Ben's parents were able to travel to Midland with him to visit Joseph for the first time since he was born. I was so excited to hear that they were going to be able to go hang out with them for awhile. Ben's dad, Robbie, took his camera with him and captured some great pictures! Here are a few of my sweet stepson!

Isn't he sweet?! I have never once freaked out about Ben having a son. I have seen a lot of people who don't even consider a relationship just because there is a child involved, and that breaks my heart. Ben and I even talked a lot about this before we were engaged. I am actually thrilled that he has a son.

When I was a junior in high school, I was told that I have PCOS, or Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. I am not going into detail about it, but basically I was told that it would be a lot harder to have babies. I was told that I would most likely need some help when it came time to try. Ever since then, God has put adoption on my heart. I have thought and prayed a lot about this, and it is definitely something that has stirred in my heart for the past 6 or 7 years. I will be going to a fertility specialist in February to go over some options and to start my journey of trying to have kids. I know that God already has a plan for us, and he already knows what will happen. I also know that God is greater than anything, and nothing is impossible. I know that He will provide what we need when the time is right.

The cool thing about all of this is, Ben has been so supportive and loving. I am so thrilled that we already have Joseph, because if for some reason we aren't able to have kids or adopt, at least we will have him. He is already so special to both of us. I cannot wait to love and nurture him as he grows.

Two of my dearest friends are also very passionate about adoption. It has been so neat to see how God has worked in their lives, and how similar we all are. God has been working in their hearts for the past few months about starting an orphan care/foster care/adoption ministry within our church. I am so pumped about this. I don't know if you knew this or not, but we are ALL called to care for the orphan.

"Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for the orphans and the widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you."

James 1:27

I think the biggest misconception is people think you HAVE to adopt to be part of the ministry, but that isn't at all true! There are so many ways you can help out and minister to the orphan, and they're working diligently to start this ministry in a way that is pleasing and that will fully glorify God.

November 7th was Orphan Sunday. A day that is dedicated to orphans all over the world. The following is a video that was shown at our church. There have been times where I just sit and read or watch a video with tears just streaming down my face. It breaks my heart to think of young children living in these conditions or without the unconditional love of parents. All I ask is if you are reading this, just sit and pray. Pray for the orphans. Pray for Tara and Kasey as they start the ministry, One:27, at FBC Snyder. Pray for us as we start this journey with fertility.

"Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of the widows."

Isaiah 1:17

Four

I am a little ashamed to say that this is only my FOURTH blog post of the entire YEAR! My last post was from July, so I will update from then.

We have our house finished...for now at least! :) Here are some promised "after" pictures of our great home!

Our GREAT back porch

Guest Bedroom

Master Bathroom

Master Bedroom

Office

Laundry Room

Kitchen/Dining Area

Dining Area

Dining Area

Living Room

Living Room

Outside of the House

We have REALLY enjoyed our new house! It is such a special place to us since it is our first home together. I'm sure that there will be changes in the future, and I will keep you updated! We have our Christmas decor up, but I will have to post that another time because I have not taken pictures yet. It will be coming soon!

I have sooo much to blog about....stay tuned!

Catch Up

I just realized that I haven't blogged since FEBRUARY 1st! I can definitely admit that I haven't kept up with one of my goals for this year--to blog more. Oh well! Here is the past few months in a quick post.

Since February we have....

Officially bought our house!

We became home owners the last week of April! It was a very stressful time for both Ben and me. LOTS of paperwork!!! In the end, everything worked out great, and I moved into our house the end of April. Everything was in pretty good shape. We did some cosmetic changes to the house. We painted every wall inside the house! All of the carpet/tile was new, so we didn't have to change any of the flooring. Ben and I painted the outside of the house and painted our porches. We tried to do some landscaping--some of it has lived...some of it hasn't. Oh well! We took some before pictures of everything, and I still have to take some after pics. As soon as I do, they'll be up!

Scored some major cool gifts at my bridal shower!

Some of my mother's GREAT friends hosted an awesome bridal shower for me. Ben and I scored some super cool gifts. We are sooo blessed! Pics of this to come too...

Finished my first year of teaching!

The school year ended really late this year, or it was really late for me. I am used to getting done with school (college) the first of May! :) June 4th was our last day at work, and it was glorious! It was all a little bittersweet for me. I am no longer a first year teacher! I had a very challenging year, and honestly, I am so glad to have a break. I got a call last week from the principal at the elementary school here in town, and I accepted a full-time 5th grade science job. I am sooo excited about this transition. I knew all along that God had a plan for me to get a full-time job, but I just didn't know when that would be. Luckily, I found out the week of our wedding! :) Perfect timing!

GOT MARRIED!!!

I blogged in December about getting engaged. I didn't actually blog the whole story because it was a pretty long event. We decided that we wanted to get married during the summer because it would be better timing for me. We ended up getting married in my parent's backyard. It was so gorgeous! Everything went super smooth, and it wasn't stressful at all! How many brides can say that?! Trust me, there will be PLENTY of pictures going up on here in the next few weeks.

Roadtrip to Colorado...

Ben and I decided that we did want to take a trip after the wedding. At first, we thought about just saving our money and waiting to go somewhere later on. In the end, we just decided to go on since Ben's awesome boss let him have a week's worth of paid vacation time. We left on Sunday morning and went to Santa Fe first. Monday we loaded back up and roadtripped to Vail, CO. It was incredible! I have never been to Colorado, and Ben has actually been to different places in Colorado, but he hasn't been to Vail..that's why we chose Vail. I took a lot of pictures of the scenery, but I realized that we didn't take ONE picture of ourselves until we were on the way home. Scenery pictures to come soon! :)

It has been so much fun to just hang out the rest of this week and celebrate the 4th of July with friends and family. So, there is a quick run down of the past few months. Pictures to come soon!

Slacker!

Man, I am such a slacker. One of my goals for 2010 was to blog more, and I am being such a slacker!

Let's play catch-up...

Since my last post, I have not gotten a whole lot of stuff done for the wedding. We finalized the lists, got our engagement pics done, and that is about it. The reason why we haven't gotten a whole lot done for the wedding is because...we have decided to buy a house!

What in the heck are we thinking?!?!?

Buying a house is such a stressful task. We are pre-approved for the loan, and have a contract on a house, but it seems like almost everyday, the bank wants to know more about your income, your credit, or whatever. We are praying that everything will go through and we won't have any issues, but you never know what will happen. I will definitely be glad when it is all done! The house is great though. Everything is clean, updated, and neutral! The only changes we will need to make are painting and changing out knobs/handles and ceiling fans. But, you know that I cannot stop thinking about paint colors or checking out Lowe's online. It is great--3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, laundry room, kitchen, huge living room, 2 car garage, and has the CUTEST back patio/porch. And, I think that we got it at a GREAT price. The housing market in Snyder is ridiculous! Here are two pictures--one of the front and one of the back porch. These are pictures from the realtor's website, so they aren't the greatest.

This past weekend was the D.Now weekend for our church youth group. We had a lot more kids show up than expected, and we had a great time. My friend Sarah and I were the leaders for the 10th grade girls group, and we had a good time together. The weekend didn't end up going as planned for us, but in the end, we all learned some valuable life lessons.

Hunter officially started baseball last week, so we are all SUPER pumped about that! We are a family of baseball fanatics! Plus, Hunter is the baby of the family, and we all think he is just fabulous. Look forward to a lot of fun pictures from baseball...

I have also started a new book. I am accomplishing several of my 2010 goals in this--reading more and becoming a better Christian. I have heard about this book for a long time, but just kept putting off reading it. One of the leaders at a youth camp I went to this past summer with our youth group RAVED about it, but I forgot about it until I was able to watch Francis Chan @ the Passion conference in Atlanta this year. So, after that, I decided to get the book, and I started it last night. I read the first chapter, and it has already blown me away.

This book is going to challenge us all to obtain a closer relationship with Christ. God longs for us to have a passionate relationship with Him. We cannot achieve that by working harder on our list of do's and don'ts, but we can have that deep relationship with Him if we TRULY fall in love with Christ. Once we encounter the love that He has for us, we will never be the same again. I am finding this out through this book. This book also has sweet videos that go along with stuff in the chapters. To watch the videos or get more information on this book visit http://www.crazylovebook.com/. I challenge you to read this along with me...we will be changed together.

2010 Goals + Wedding Stuff

This has been the first week back to school, and it has been a little hard to get back on schedule! I was used to staying up until midnight, and then sleeping in until noon! I must say, I do LOVE to be on a routine, so I am thankful that school started back up. This week has actually been SUPER in my classroom. I think that Santa sent me a new class back to school. All of my sweet babies have stayed on the "blue star"..which means nobody has gotten in trouble ONCE since we started. This is monumental! They have been so proud of themselves. I pray that this kind of behavior continues to the end of school!

I always hear of people who make their resolutions for the new year, and end up forgetting about them a week later. So, I always make goals for myself. I like the sound of goals better than resolutions. I figured that if I shared my goals with you on here, then they would most likely get accomplished..I expect some accountability! :) Here it goes...

*be a better Christian--I neglected God so much in 2009. I want to spend more GENUINE time with Him. I have worried so much about what other people think of me, when I need to start thinking about what God thinks of me, and how I am serving Him. I want to have a more intimate relationship with Him.
*be more healthy--I wouldn't mind losing some weight, but I really want to be more healthy.
*tell and show Ben how much I love and appreciate him daily.
*make time to sit and talk to Ben daily about his day--even if it is just 5 minutes!
*love on my family more!
*save more money--I buy so much junk that I do not need!
*give more--I want to give more love, more patience, more kindness, and more money to those in need.
*pray more often.
*learn to truly love myself.
*do more random acts of kindness--send random notes to people, pay for the person's food/drinks behind me in a drive through line...just be kind.
*take more pictures.
*blog more--this is hard for me, but I am going to try it!
*learn to knit--I have ALWAYS wanted to do this! Cute hats and scarves coming up!
*be more positive.
*read more--I LOVE to read, and I tend to forget to "make time" to just relax and curl up with a good book.
*be more appreciative.
*drink more water--I must step away from the Diet Coke!

Those are the goals I have come up with so far..I think that most of them are pretty reachable!

Ok...so for wedding stuff....I have A LOT done! I am so glad that he proposed while we were on a break! I was able to get a lot done, and hopefully, I won't stress as much now. I have gotten my dress, talked to Whitney Owen about our invitations and all that jazz, bought some decor, come up with guest lists, found super awesome photographers--Rocky and Sara (Thornhill) Garza, and printed off tons of pictures for ideas! Our colors are going to be a real light blue, red, and different shades of pink. The wedding will be June 26th at 7.30 in the evening. We are going to try to get married in my parent's backyard. It is just gorgeous, and I would LOVE to have an outdoor wedding--just pray the weather cooperates! It is going to be SUPER relaxed and casual...very vintage retro. Here are some of our inspiration pictures...

Those are just a few pictures that I fell in love with when I saw them. Lastly...here is a picture of my dress! I absolutely love it! I couldn't have found a better dress.

I hope that everyone has had a great start to 2010! Can't wait to start a brand new adventure this year!